In de initiaw phase of Masters and Johnson's studies, from 1957 untiw 1965, dey recorded some of de first waboratory data on de anatomy and physiowogy of human sexuaw response based on direct observation of 382 women and 312 men in what dey conservativewy estimated to be "10,000 compwete cycwes of sexuaw response". Their findings, particuwarwy on de nature of femawe sexuaw arousaw (for exampwe, describing de mechanisms of vaginaw wubrication and debunking de earwier widewy hewd notion dat vaginaw wubrication originated from de cervix) and orgasm (showing dat de physiowogy of orgasmic response was identicaw wheder stimuwation was cwitoraw or vaginaw, and proving dat some women were capabwe of being muwtiorgasmic), dispewwed many wong-standing misconceptions.[2][3]

They jointwy wrote two cwassic texts in de fiewd, Human Sexuaw Response and Human Sexuaw Inadeqwacy, pubwished in 1966 and 1970, respectivewy. Bof of dese books were best-sewwers and were transwated into more dan dirty wanguages. The team has been inducted into de St. Louis Wawk of Fame.[4] Additionawwy, dey are de focus of a tewevision series cawwed Masters of Sex[5] for Showtime based on de 2009 biography by audor Thomas Maier.[5]

Masters and Johnson met in 1957 when Wiwwiam Masters hired Virginia Johnson as a research assistant to undertake a comprehensive study of human sexuawity. According to audor Thomas Maier, as part of deir cwinicaw research, Masters and Johnson observed paid vowunteers engaging in sexuaw activity whiwe hooked to wires in deir wab.[5] At Masters's reqwest, Masters and Johnson engaged in intercourse as subjects of deir own study and eventuawwy became wovers.[5] Maier stated dey often spent summer vacations togeder in Masters's home whiwe his wife Libby and chiwdren were travewing, and dat associates bewieved dat towards de end of his marriage to first wife Libby, Masters and Johnson worked and travewed togeder seven days a week.[5] Maier awso stated dat Masters spent more time in de wab wif Johnson dan he did wif his wife and chiwdren and aww but wived wif Johnson in whose home he spent of time.[5] Masters divorced his first wife to marry Johnson in 1971.[6] They divorced in March 18, 1993 in de Circuit Court of St. Louis County. Previouswy, de study of human sexuawity (sexowogy) had been a wargewy negwected area of study due to de restrictive sociaw conventions of de time, wif prostitution as a notabwe exception, uh-hah-hah-hah.

Awfred Kinsey and cowweagues at Indiana University had previouswy pubwished two vowumes on sexuaw behavior in de human mawe and femawe (known as de Kinsey Reports), in 1948 and 1953, respectivewy, bof of which had been revowutionary and controversiaw in deir time. Kinsey's work however, had mainwy investigated de freqwency wif which certain behaviors occurred in de popuwation and was based on personaw interviews, not on waboratory observation, uh-hah-hah-hah. In contrast, Masters and Johnson set about to study de structure, psychowogy, and physiowogy of sexuaw behavior, drough observing and measuring masturbation and sexuaw intercourse in de waboratory.

Initiawwy, participants used in deir experiments were prostitutes. Masters and Johnson expwained dat dey were a sociawwy isowated group of peopwe, dey were knowwedgeabwe about sex, and dat dey were wiwwing to cooperate wif de study. Of de 145 prostitutes dat participated, onwy a sewect few were furder evawuated for deir genitaw anatomy and deir physiowogicaw responses. In water studies, however, Masters and Johnson recruited 382 women and 312 men from de community. The vast majority of participants were white, dey had higher education wevews, and most participants were married coupwes.[7]

As weww as recording some of de first physiowogicaw data from de human body and sex organs during sexuaw excitation, dey awso framed deir findings and concwusions in wanguage dat espoused sex as a heawdy and naturaw activity dat couwd be enjoyed as a source of pweasure and intimacy.

The era in which deir research was conducted permitted de use of medods dat had not been attempted before, and dat have not been attempted since: "[M]en and women were designated as 'assigned partners' and arbitrariwy paired wif each oder to create 'assigned coupwes'."[8]

Their modew shows no difference between Sigmund Freud's purported categories of "vaginaw orgasm" and "cwitoraw orgasm": de physiowogicaw response was identicaw, even if de stimuwation was in a different pwace.[2][3]

Masters and Johnson's findings awso reveawed dat men undergo a refractory period fowwowing orgasm during which dey are not abwe to ejacuwate again, whereas dere is no refractory period in women: dis makes women capabwe of muwtipwe orgasm.[2][3] They awso were de first to describe de phenomenon of de rhydmic contractions of orgasm in bof sexes occurring initiawwy in 0.8 second intervaws and den graduawwy swowing in bof speed and intensity.

Masters and Johnson were de first to conduct research on de sexuaw responsiveness of owder aduwts, finding dat given a state of reasonabwy good heawf and de avaiwabiwity of an interested and interesting partner, dere was no absowute age at which sexuaw abiwities disappeared. Whiwe dey noted dat dere were specific changes to de patterns of mawe and femawe sexuaw responses wif aging – for exampwe, it takes owder men wonger to become aroused and dey typicawwy reqwire more direct genitaw stimuwation, and de speed and amount of vaginaw wubrication tends to diminish wif age as weww – dey noted dat many owder men and women are perfectwy capabwe of excitement and orgasm weww into deir seventies and beyond, a finding dat has been confirmed in popuwation-based epidemiowogicaw research on sexuaw function in de ewderwy.[9]

Masters and Johnson randomwy assigned gay men into coupwes and wesbians into coupwes and den observed dem having sex in de waboratory, at de Masters and Johnson Institute. They provided deir observations in Homosexuawity in Perspective:

Assigned mawe homosexuaw study subjects A, B, and C..., interacting in de waboratory wif previouswy unknown mawe partners, did discuss proceduraw matters wif dese partners, but qwite briefwy. Usuawwy, de discussion consisted of just a qwestion or a suggestion, but often it was wimited to nonverbaw communicative expressions such as eye contact or hand movement, any of which usuawwy proved sufficient to estabwish de protocow of partner interaction, uh-hah-hah-hah. No coaching or suggestions were made by de research team.

— p. 55

According to Masters and Johnson, dis pattern differed in de wesbian coupwes:

Whiwe initiaw stimuwative activity tended to be on a mutuaw basis, in short order controw of de specific sexuaw experience usuawwy was assumed by one partner. The assumption of controw was estabwished widout verbaw communication and freqwentwy wif no obvious nonverbaw direction, awdough on one occasion discussion as to proceduraw strategy continued even as de coupwe was interacting physicawwy.

Their research into de anatomy and physiowogy of sexuaw response was a springboard to devewoping a cwinicaw approach to de treatment of sexuaw probwems in a revowutionary manner. Prior to 1970, when dey described deir treatment program to de worwd for de first time, sexuaw dysfunctions such as premature ejacuwation, impotence, vaginismus, and femawe frigidity had been generawwy treated by wong-term (muwti-year) psychoderapy or psychoanawysis wif very wow rates of success. Masters and Johnson revowutionized dings by devising a form of rapid treatment (2 week) psychoderapy awways invowving a coupwe, rader dan just an individuaw, working wif a mawe-femawe derapist team dat resuwted in a success rate of more dan 80%. This was strictwy a tawking derapy – coupwes in deir sex derapy program were never observed in sexuaw activity.

From 1968 to 1977, de Masters and Johnson Institute ran a program to convert homosexuaws to heterosexuawity. This program reported a 71.6% success rate over a six-year treatment period.[10][11] At de time of deir earwier work, homosexuawity was cwassified as a psychowogicaw disorder by de American Psychiatric Association,[12] a cwassification which was repeawed in 1973.

Audor Thomas Maier stated "dat Virginia Johnson had serious reservations about Masters' conversion deory, and she suspected dat, at worst, de resuwts of de study may have been fabricated by Wiwwiam Masters".[5][13] Cwinicaw associate to de Masters's and psychiatrist Robert C. Kowodny awso expressed reservations about de veracity of de findings in Masters's book on de topic and awweged dat Masters had not kept fiwes of de case studies cited in de book.[5] Shortwy before de book was pubwished, he wrote Masters a two-page wetter expressing Johnson's and Kowodny's reservations on de awweged successfuw reconversion findings and urging him to reconsider pubwication of de book, to no avaiw.[5] As homosexuawity was on de verge of being dropped from de DSM, Masters's insistence on pubwishing de book proved to be tone-deaf and was shunned by book critics.[5]

Some sex researchers, Shere Hite in particuwar, have focused on understanding how individuaws regard sexuaw experience and de meaning it howds for dem. Hite has criticized Masters and Johnson's work for uncriticawwy incorporating cuwturaw attitudes on sexuaw behavior into deir research; for exampwe, her work concwuded dat de 70% of women who do not have orgasms drough intercourse are abwe to achieve orgasm easiwy by masturbation, uh-hah-hah-hah.[14][15][16] She, as weww as Ewisabef Lwoyd, have criticized Masters and Johnson's argument dat enough cwitoraw stimuwation to achieve orgasm shouwd be provided by drusting during intercourse, and de inference dat de faiwure of dis is a sign of femawe "sexuaw dysfunction".[16] Whiwe not denying dat bof Kinsey and Masters and Johnson have made major contributions to sex research, she bewieves dat peopwe must understand de cuwturaw and personaw construction of sexuaw experience to make de research rewevant to sexuaw behavior outside de waboratory. Hite's work, however, has been chawwenged for medodowogicaw defects.[17]

Moreover, Masters and Johnson's research medodowogy has been criticized. First, Pauw Robinson argues dat because many of deir participants were prostitutes, it is highwy wikewy dat dese individuaws have had more sexuaw experience and are awso more comfortabwe wif sex and sexuawity in generaw.[18] He says dat one must approach dese resuwts wif caution, because de participants do not represent de generaw popuwation, uh-hah-hah-hah. Oder researchers have argued dat Masters and Johnson ewiminated same-sex attracted participants when studying de human sexuaw response cycwe, which awso wimits de generawizabiwity of deir resuwts.[19] Furdermore, Masters and Johnson have been criticized for studying sexuaw behaviors in de waboratory. Whiwe dey attempted to make participants as comfortabwe as possibwe in de wab by giving dem a "practice session" before deir behavior was recorded, critics have argued dat two peopwe engaging in sexuaw activity in a wab is a different experience compared to being in de privacy of one's home.[19][20]

Anoder persistent critiqwe was dat despite her extensive years of cwinicaw work, Virginia Johnson never earned a university degree and often did not correct dose who referred to her in de press or in person as "Dr. Johnson, uh-hah-hah-hah."[5]

The American cabwe network Showtime debuted Masters of Sex, a dramatic tewevision series based on de 2009 biography of de same name, on September 29, 2013. The series stars Michaew Sheen as Masters and Lizzy Capwan as Johnson, uh-hah-hah-hah.